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Notes -
Define "work". Because I see no reasons why it wouldn't be a functional civilisation. If your definition of "work" is that the racial makeup of elite universities mirrors their prevalence in the population, then no, it won't "work". But if it's that the lights remain on and things get done, then of course it would work, and it would work better than our current one. Certainly more efficiently, once you strip out all the DEI bloat from everything.
If the contention is that underperforming ethnicities would cry foul and riot, I put it to you that this is in no way significantly different from the current world. The only response needed is "git gud".
The claim is that even if you gather the political capital to force race-free, meritocratic admissions, after a little people will see that it leads to distributions you don't like, leading to reimposition of the problematic norms.
If you've already got the political capital to force race-free, meritocratic admissions you will by necessity have completely dismantled the currently existing political infrastructure that agitates for the reimposition of those problematic norms.
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